The New One, who as rarely put a foot wrong throughout his hurdling career, maintained his Champion Hurdle credentials with a confident round of jumping at Cheltenham on Saturday to land his second consecutive win in the StanJames.com International Hurdle.
“Obviously coming into the race we had to win to be a Champion Hurdle contender. He wasn’t flashy but he got the job done and did it very, very well.”
The six-year-old son of King’s Theatre is now unbeaten in his three starts this season and takes his tally to 13 wins from 18 starts, all in the hands of Sam Twiston-Davies for his trainer father Nigel.
“Obviously coming into the race we had to win to be a Champion Hurdle contender. He wasn’t flashy but he got the job done and did it very, very well,” said the winning jockey.
The New One has only once finished out of the frame in his life wen sixth in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper on his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival in 2012. He went on to win the Grade 1 Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle the following year before finishing third to Jezki and My Tent Or Yours in this year’s Champion Hurdle.
He is now second-favourite behind the Willie Mullins-trained Faugheen for the 2015 Champion Hurdle and could yet reappear in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton.
